THE FOLGER BOARD OF GOVERNORS
Louis R. Cohen, Chair Philip Deutch, Vice-Chair Simon Russell Beale The Lord Browne of Madingley Peter Edwards Susan Sachs Goldman Wyatt R. Haskell Deneen C. Howell Maxine Isaacs Edward R. Leahy May Liang Carol L. Ludwig Ken Ludwig Roger Millay Louisa Newlin Andrew J. Nussbaum Andrew Oliver Gail Kern Paster Stuart Rose Loren Rothschild James Shapiro Lady Westmacott Laura J. Yerkovich Ex Officio Michael Witmore
SENIOR DIRECTORS
Michael Witmore, Director Daniel De Simone, Eric Weinmann Librarian Melody Fetske, Director of Finance and Administration Janet Alexander Griffin, Director of Public Programs Eric M. Johnson, Director of Digital Access Kathleen Lynch, Executive Director, Folger Institute Essence Newhoff, Director of Development Peggy O’Brien, Director of Education
DIVISION OF PUBLIC PROGRAMS Beth Emelson, Assistant Artistic Producer David Polk, General Manager Charles Flye, Production Manager Rebekah Sheffer, Assistant Technical Director Tim Guillot, Audience Services Coordinator Emily Tartanella, Public Programs Assistant Maegan Clearwood, Public Programs Administrative Assistant Teresa Wood, Casting Assistant Kate Abbott, Adrianne Eby, Courtney Feiman, Kate Gifford, Emily Kester, Ben Lauer, Erin Simpson, House Managers Jennifer Bowman, Folger Consort Manager Teri Cross Davis, Poetry Coordinator Katharine Pitt, Humanities Programs Assistant Emma Snyder, Executive Director, PEN/Faulkner Foundation Peter Eramo, Jr., Events Publicity and Marketing Manager WiT Media, Graphics Designer and Advertising Agency Jeanne Krohn, Graphic Designer Barbara Shaw, Playbill Typesetter Jane Pisano, Publications Consultant Stephanie Svoboda, Ticketing Operations Manager Christina Pinnell, Box Office Manager Heather Newhouse, Box Office Lead Associate Kiersten Dittrich, Group Sales Assistant Francesca Chilcote, Amanda Duchemin, Jeff Gan, Lee Garret, Keith Hock, Annie Immediata, Emily Kester, Leslie Putnam Box Office Assistants EXTERNAL RELATIONS Garland Scott, Head of External Relations Esther French, Communications Associate
DIVISION OF EDUCATION Corinne Viglietta, Assistant Director of Education Danielle A. Drakes, School Programs Manager Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger, Visitor Education Programs Manager Katherine Dvorak, Education Programs Assistant Greg Armstrong, Education Administrative Assistant Maribeth Cote, Public Engagement Coordinator JC McElveen, Docent Chair Michael LoMonico, Senior Consultant on National Education Louisa Newlin, Senior Consultant OFFICE OF DEVELOPMENT Mary Zehe, Assistant Director of Development for Operations Winnie Harrington Robinson, Senior Development Officer for Major Gifts Connie L. Perez, Senior Development Officer for Institutional Relations Cari Romeu, Senior Development Officer for Annual Giving Tiffany M. FitzGerald, Membership and Annual Fund Manager Leslie Gehring, Development Services Coordinator Colleen Robinson, Development Associate for Major Gifts Elena Forbes, Development Associate for Corporate Relations DIRECTOR’S OFFICE Yvonne Barton, Executive Assistant to the Director Lari Lavigne, Administrative Assistant, Executive Offices
FOLGER THEATRE 2015/16 SEASON Janet Alexander Griffin Artistic Producer
Beth Emelson
David Polk
Assistant Artistic Producer General Manager
Season Sponsors
Helen and David Kenney and Family Neal T. Turtell
Production Sponsors
Nicky Cymrot Susan Sachs Goldman John and Connie McGuire
Contributing Sponsors
Roger and Robin Millay Craig Pascal and Victor Shargai The Steinglass Family
Associate Sponsors Howard M. Brown Rick Kasten Pam McFarland and Brian Hagenbuch Scott and Liz Vance
Artist Sponsors
Karl K. and Carrol Benner Kindel
Folger Theatre’s open-captioned performances are generously sponsored by Vinton and Sigrid Cerf
Media Sponsor
Folger Theatre’s production is part of Shakespeare in American Communities, a national program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership
with Arts Midwest.
By
Charles Flye
Production Manager
William Shakespeare
Aaron Posner† Director
Erika Chong Shuch Choreographer
Paige Hathaway Scenic Design
Devon Painter* Costume Design
Jesse Belsky
Lighting Design
Sarah Pickett*
Sound Design and Additional Music
Andre Pluess Original Music
Michele Osherow
Resident Dramaturg
Daryl Eisenberg, CSA
Daryl Eisenberg Casting New York Casting
Marne Anderson**
Production Stage Manager
Elisabeth Ribar**
Assistant Stage Manager
†Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers *Member of United Scenic Artists **Member of Actors’ Equity Association
DIRECTOR’S NOTES Some gifts just keep on giving...
A Midsummer Night’s Dream was a gift to me when I got to play Oberon (in a, perhaps, 45 minute version) costumed in the shredded green lining of my mother’s old raincoat in the fourth grade at Ridge Road Elementary in North Haven, Connecticut. It was a gift when I played one of Oberon’s fairies in seventh grade in Ray Scofield’s production at Roosevelt Jr. High in Eugene, Oregon. (I also got to go on for one performance as Snout! I remember cramming all the lines in a single afternoon and loving the excitement, the danger, the thrill.)
It was a tremendous gift when I assistant directed for the extraordinary Hungarian/Canadian director John Hirsch in 1987 in Dallas, Texas. What he taught me on that production changed my life and my work forever, and I am eternally grateful. It was a gift when I directed it at the Arden Theatre in 1998 to open The Haas Stage in our new home in Old City, and a gift yet again when I did it at the California Shakespeare Theatre and Two River Theatre in 2009.
And it is a gift again now, here, at Folger Theatre in 2016, more than 40 years after the first time I came into contact with all these fierce and fabulous lovers and fairies and would-be actors. And now that I am, shockingly, as old (or older) than
almost every character in the play, it is a true delight to find that it all only seems more moving, more magical, more mysterious, and more miraculously true and human and remarkable than ever.
I’m deeply grateful to Folger Theatre for the chance to engage with this play again.
We have approached this production with all the honesty, complexity and wonder we can muster. The actors are bringing their own hearts, minds and spirits to the roles, and through their talent, skill, and generosity, we’re attempting to find small, new gifts within this well-worn, well-loved script. I’m deeply grateful to all of them—and to all the artists involved and everyone at Folger Theatre—for all that they are bringing to this production.
Finally, thank you for joining us, regardless of whether this is your first Dream, your fifteenth, or your fiftieth. We hope you will find—as I have—that if you are open, it will continue to offer you great gifts of love, laughter, insight, and inspiration each and every time. Enjoy!
–Aaron Posner
CAST
(in alphabetical order)
Starveling Egeus Demetrius Lysander Hippolyta/Titania Snug/Philostrate Theseus/Oberon Hermia Snout Peter Quince Francis Flute Bottom Puck Helena
Understudies Jacqueline Chenault (Mechanicals) Megan Graves (Hermia/Puck) Jennifer Hopkins (Titania/Hippolyta/Bottom) Jeff Keogh (Theseus/Oberon/Egeus)
Justina Adorno Elliott Bales* Desmond Bing Adam Wesley Brown* Caroline Stefanie Clay* Megan Graves Eric Hissom* Betsy Mugavero* Monique Robinson* Richard Ruiz* Dani Stoller Holly Twyford* Erin Weaver* Kim Wong* Lilian Oben (Mechanicals) Zachary Powell (Demetrius/Lysander) Scott Alan Small (Peter Quince) Dani Stoller (Helena)
* Members of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. Equity’s mission is to advance, promote, and foster the art of live theater as an essential component of our society. Today, Equity represents more than 49,000 actors, singers, dancers, and stage managers working in hundreds of theaters across the United States. Equity members are dedicated to working in the theater as a profession, upholding the highest artistic standards. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. For more information, visit www.actorsequity.org.
This production is performed with one 15-minute intermission.
Please refrain from using cell phones, cameras, or other recording devices during Midsummer.
SYNOPSIS
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
residents of Athens mix with fairies from a local forest, with comic results. In the city, Theseus, Duke of Athens, is to marry Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. Bottom the weaver and his friends rehearse in the woods a play they hope to stage for the wedding celebrations.
Four young Athenians are in a romantic tangle. Lysander and Demetrius love Hermia; she loves Lysander; and her friend Helena loves Demetrius. Hermia’s father, Egeus, commands Hermia to marry Demetrius, and Theseus supports the father’s right. All four young Athenians end up in the woods, where Puck, who serves the fairy
king Oberon, puts flower juice on the eyes of Lysander, and then Demetrius, unintentionally causing both to love Helena. Oberon, who is quarreling with his wife, Titania, uses the flower juice on her eyes. She falls in love with Bottom, who now, thanks to Puck, has the head of an ass.
As the lovers sleep, Puck restores Lysander’s love for Hermia, so that now each young woman is matched with the man she loves. Oberon disenchants Titania and removes Bottom’s ass’s head. The two young couples join the royal couple in getting married, and Bottom rejoins his friends to perform the play.
– From Folger Digital Texts
DRAMATURG’S NOTES There’s a fascination with dreams in Shakespeare, though Midsummer is the only play to announce one in its title. What’s odd is that aside from Hermia’s unnerving vision in the forest, no dreams are dreamt. Instead, we find characters confronting, exploring, and indulging imagination, testing conditions under which the imagined turns real. Key to Renaissance understanding of dreams was their relationship to Imagination. Night visions came from an unsettled or overactive mind, producing “a bubbling scum or froth of fancy” (Nash). Imagination was a virtue and a vice: considered “the excellentest and noblest power” (Du Laurens), as well as the “mother of all mischiefs, confusions,
disorders, … passions, troubles” (Charron).
Imagination is a topic of Midsummer, most famously with the text: “The lunatic, the lover and the poet / Are of imagination all compact” (5.1). In context, these lines show Theseus backing reason over imagination. Early on, however, he fuses current events with creative thinking to charm an Amazon: Hippolyta, I wooed thee with mymy sword, Hippolyta, I wooed thee with sword, And won thythy love doing thee injuries; And won love doing thee injuries; ButBut I will wed thee in in another key, I will wed thee another key, With pomp, with triumph, and with With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling. (1.1) reveling. (1.1)
The movement from combat to courtship may be insurmountable for some, but Theseus employs imagination as an agent of change. If Hippolyta responds to his vision, the fantasy is made real. Romantic imaginings are replaced by thoughts more sinister. Hermia, in love with Lysander against her father’s wishes, learns that her dad prefers a dead daughter to a disobedient one. The effects of his twisted paternal authority provide the central conflict. Egeus cites “ancient privilege” (1.1), but the entitlement he imagines contradicts the law of nature.
Hermia and Lysander, pursued by Demetrius and Helena, escape to a wood inhabited by fairies. The supernatural realm lays bare the darker sides of Imagination: mischief and disorder abound in Puck; trouble and confusion follow Oberon and Titania’s clash over a changeling. Mostly, love runs amuck in the forest. To Renaissance thinkers, passion was driven by Imagination, and the distorted, fleeting perceptions it inspires. “[R]eason and love keep little company together nowadays,” says Bottom (3.1). The fairy world exaggerates that truth. We laugh at how quickly people fall in and out of love, with whom and with what. Love happens in the blink of an eye, particularly if the eye has been charmed by fairies. Midsummer draws our attention to eyes and ways of seeing. Hermia suggests her father “look… but with my eyes” to appreciate Lysander’s qualities (1.1). Helena accuses Hermia’s eyes of snatching Demetrius’s heart. Still, it’s the mind’s eye that best indicates love: the flower distilled by Puck is the pansy (pensée); “that’s for thoughts” (Hamlet 4.5).
After their night of magical thinking, the lovers are unable to distinguish imagination from reality, dream from memory. But determining the truth of events is unimportant; it’s the truth of their effects that matters. The change that touched the lovers by night is so palpable by morning that Theseus overturns law and directs them to marry. The lovers’ minds “transfigured so together” best show the virtue of their union and their potential for lasting joy (5.1).
Among the many joys of Midsummer is the way imagination is converted from a private experience to a shared one. How better to demonstrate this than with a troupe of players—in this production, the drama club of a girls’ school? The troupe works hard to transfigure their imaginations and their audiences’. But they underestimate us. The humor in their anticipation of “the ladies’” responses underscores the artist/audience collaboration that, in the theater, is always in play. Performance and transformation are linked hilariously in Bottom. But I wager her physical “translation” takes a backseat to the spiritual. Her parody of St. Paul marks a divine revelation: “The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen…nor his heart to report what my dream was” (4.1). Soon Bottom changes her tune: her “most rare vision” will be seen and heard and reported: St. Paul’s text won’t do it, but Peter Quince’s will. Midsummer presents theater as a site of revelation and transformation, of imagination, perception, passion. It’s a place where a man may get “six pence a day for playing” (4.2). Come again soon.
—Michele Osherow
IN THE READING ROOM
CAST
Justina Adorno
Starveling Access Theater: Life is a Dream; Coastal Carolina University: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Alligator, The Laramie Project, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Eurydice.
Elliott Bales
Egeus Theater Alliance: Occupied Territories, The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Helen Hayes Award nomination); Unexpected Stage: Romeo and Juliet: Love Knows No Age; Spooky Action Theater: Last of the Whyos; The Welders: Not Enuf Lifetimes. Film: The Coming Storm, Capturing Oswald, The Wars, Enemy of the Reich. Television: House of Horrors: Kidnapped, American Super/ Natural, Nightmare Next Door, Deadly Affairs.
Desmond Bing
Demetrius Arena Stage: All the Way (upcoming); Mosaic Theater Company of DC: Unexplored Interior; Theater Alliance: Occupied Territories, Brokeology (staged reading); Round House Theatre: Ten Minute Play Festival. Regional: Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse: Occupied Territories (upcoming); Penumbra Theatre Company: Stage Directions; Ogunquit Playhouse: All Shook Up; Bright Star Touring Theatre: Struggle For Freedom: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Story. Film: Lawn Gnome, Love Story; Commercial: HEX Brand Accessories Spring Lookbook.
Adam Wesley Brown
Lysander Folger Theatre: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Chicago Shakespeare Theater: The Tempest, Julius Caesar, Henry VIII; Actors Theatre of Louisville: A Christmas Carol;
Jackalope Theatre: Long Way Go Down (Joseph Jefferson Award nomination, Best Actor). Broadway: Once. Film: Google Me Love. Debut album out on iTunes: Adam Wesley Brown—Live at Bowery Poetry. @adamwesleybrown
Caroline Stefanie Clay
Hippolyta/Titania Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Duchess of Malfi; Forum Theatre: Clementine in the Lower 9, Gidion’s Knot; Ford’s Theatre: The Widow Lincoln; Arena Stage: The Blood Quilt. Broadway: Doubt, The Royal Family. Off-Broadway: Playwrights Horizons: Breath Boom; Atlantic Theater Company: Force Continuum; NYTW: Light Raise; Signature Theatre/Public Theatre: Funnyhouse of a Negro. Regional theaters include work at: Yale Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Goodman Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre. Tours: Doubt (Helen Hayes Award for Best Supporting Actress in NonResident Production). Film: Everybody’s Fine, Sherrybaby, Morning Glory. Television: Law & Order: SVU, House of Cards, The Knick.
Megan Graves
Snug/Philostrate Forum Theatre: Passion Play, Clementine in the Lower 9; The National Theatre’s Children’s Theatre: The BFG; Imagination Stage: The BFG (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding TYA Production), Inside Out, The Night Fairy, The Magic Finger; 1st Stage Theater: One Man, Two Guv’nors, The Cripple of Inishmaan; Adventure Theatre MTC: The Twelve Days of Christmas; No Rules Theatre Company: Peter Pan: the Boy Who Hated Mothers (world premiere). Regional: Virginia Repertory Theatre: Peter and the Starcatcher; Virginia Shakespeare Festival: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice. (continued on next page)
CAST
Eric Hissom
Theseus/Oberon Folger Theatre: Romeo and Juliet, Cyrano, Arcadia (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Supporting Actor, Resident Play), Macbeth. Off-Broadway: New York Fringe Festival: China—The Whole Enchilada. Round House Theatre: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: In the Next Room, or the vibrator play; Actors Theatre of Louisville: Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged); Asolo Repertory Theatre: Glengarry Glen Ross, The Game’s Afoot; Arden Theatre Company: Our Town, August: Osage County; Milwaukee Repertory Theater: Eurydice; Two River Theater Company: Melissa Arctic; Syracuse Stage: Around the World in Eighty Days; Cape Playhouse: The Mystery of Irma Vep; Orlando Shakespeare Theater: Much Ado About Nothing, The Winter’s Tale, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Private Lives, Art, Wittenberg. National Tour: The 39 Steps. Film: Out of Time. Television: Mortal Kombat, Sheena, One Tree Hill.
Betsy Mugavero
Hermia Regional: Utah Shakespeare Festival: Amadeus, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Henry V, Peter and the Starcatcher, among others; Great Lakes Theater: As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, among others; other theaters include Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre. betsymugavero-com.webs.com
Monique Robinson
Snout Regional: Oregon Shakespeare Festival: The Comedy of Errors; Shakespeare & Company: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Everyman, Revolutionary Moment; A Contemporary Theatre: The Final Days. Off-Off-Broadway: Workshop Theater Company: Iyom. Film: The Product, A Valentine’s Day Dream. moniquearobinson.com
Richard Ruiz
Peter Quince Folger Theatre: Cyrano. OffBroadway: The Public: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, the musical; New York City Center Encores!: Fiorello!; Paper Mill Playhouse/La Jolla Playhouse: Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame; Yale Repertory Theatre: The Winter’s Tale; Long Wharf Theatre: Guys and Dolls; The Old Globe: The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Westport Country Playhouse: Room Service; Intiman Theatre Festival: The Mystery of Irma Vep; Baltimore Center Stage: ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore. National Tours: Man of La Mancha, Sweet Charity, Urinetown, Jesus Christ Superstar. Cast albums: Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Dani Stoller
Francis Flute Folger Theatre: District Merchants (upcoming). 1st Stage: Bat Boy (Helen Hayes Award nomination), Blithe Spirit, The Italian American Reconciliation; The Keegan Theatre: Dogfight, Hair; Signature Theatre: Really, Really, Dying City; Kennedy Center Millennium Stage: Dizzy Miss Lizzie’s The Brontes; Studio Theatre: Carrie, Invisible Man. National Tour: Big Nate with ATMTC. danistoller.com
Holly Twyford
Bottom Folger Theatre: Mary Stuart, The Taming of the Shrew, Orestes: A Tragic Romp, Arcadia (Helen Hayes Award nomination), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Helen Hayes Award), All’s Well That Ends Well, Melissa Arctic, Twelfth Night, Othello, As You Like It, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet (Helen Hayes Award). Folger Consort: The Second Shepherds’ Play, The Tempest; Signature Theatre: Twentieth Century, The Little Dog Laughed (Helen Hayes Award), A Fox on the Fairway; Round House Theatre: The Sisterhood, Living Out; Studio Theatre: Time Stands Still, The Road to Mecca, The
CAST
Steward of Christendom, Desk Set, Betty’s Summer Vacation, The Shape of Things (Helen Hayes Award), Far Away, Black Milk, The Internationalist; Theater J: Life in Refusal, There Are No Strangers, Lost in Yonkers; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: We Are Proud to Present..., Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), Stop Kiss, Recent Tragic Events; Arena Stage: A Long Day’s Journey into Night, The Plough and the Stars, The Matchmaker, The Miser, Arcadia, On the Jump, An American Daughter. Regional: Arden Theatre Company: Private Lives, Candida. Directing: No Rules Theatre Company: Stop Kiss; Studio 2ndstage: Edgar and Annabel; Factory 449: The Amish Project.
Erin Weaver
Puck Folger Theatre: Romeo and Juliet (Helen Hayes nomination), The Comedy of Errors, Arcadia (Helen Hayes Award), The Tempest. Signature Theatre: Xanadu (Helen Hayes nomination), The Last Five Years (Helen Hayes nomination), Company (Helen Hayes Award); Arena Stage: Mother Courage and Her Children starring Kathleen Turner (Helen Hayes Award); Round House Theatre: Ordinary Days (Helen Hayes Award), The Nutcracker, A Wrinkle in Time, A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage; Imagination Stage: Night Fairy; Adventure Theater:
A Lump of Coal for Christmas. Regional: Delaware Theatre Company: A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage (Barrymore Award nomination); People’s Light and Theatre Company: eight productions including Gossamer, Cinderella (Barrymore Award, Best Ensemble), Jack & the Beanstalk (Barrymore Award nomination), Treasure Island (Barrymore Award nomination); Two River Theater Company: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Our Town (NJ Star Ledger Award), A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage (NJ Star Ledger Award), Mary’s Wedding; Act II Playhouse: Syncopation, Mary’s Wedding (Barrymore Award nomination); Arden Theatre Company: Into the Woods. Tour: Les Misérables.
Kim Wong
Helena Regional: Triad Stage: All’s Well That Ends Well; Barrington Stage: Much Ado About Nothing; STONC: South Pacific. Off-Broadway: inProximity Theatre Company: Promising; Firebone Theatre: Red Flamboyant; The Pearl Theatre Company: The Philanderer. Tours: Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet; American Globe Theatre: Romeo and Juliet. Television and film: HBO: Wizard of Lies; CBS: Blue Bloods; NBC: Deception; Second Star NYC: Working Title.
A Modern Perspective by Catherine Belsey, University of Cardiff, Wales
When Bottom wakes up, near the end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, after spending a night of love with the queen of the fairies, this formerly masterful and garrulous figure is suddenly very nearly inarticulate. What could he say that would do justice to the experience? “I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream” (4.1.214–7). Bottom’s name and his transformation—an event that clarifies more than it changes his identity—invite the audience to associate him with the least poetic aspects of life, and yet, even as an ass, Bottom has been touched by something special but mysterious, a power that he finds unusually hard to define. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play about love. It proposes that love is a dream, or perhaps a vision; that it is absurd, irrational, a delusion, or, perhaps, on the other hand, a transfiguration; that it is doomed to be momentary (“So quick bright things come to confusion” [1.1.151]), and that it constitutes at the same time the proper foundation for lifelong marriage. Possibly Bottom
is right, the play suggests, not to pin down anything so multiple, not to encapsulate love in a neat definition that would encourage us to measure our own and other people’s experience and find it normal or abnormal, mature or immature, wise or foolish. The play’s device, on the contrary, is to dramatize the plurality of love by characterizing it differently in a range of distinct voices.
Title illustration by Andrea LeHeup, SoleilNYC.com. Opposite: Holly Twyford (Bottom), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Aaron Posner, Folger Theatre, 2016.
James Kegley
for the spectators something of the desire it also puts on display. In one sense comedy produces the wishes it then goes on to fulfill. The play invites us to sympathize with the young lovers. In consequence, we want Hermia to marry the man she loves, in spite of the opposition of her ridiculous father, who supposes that serenades and love tokens are forms of witchcraft. And we want Helena to be happy with Demetrius in spite of his initial rejection of her love. The enigma that enlists the desire of the audience centers on whether the play will bring about the happy ending we hope for, and if so, how.
Mimi Marquet
If the story leads up to marriage, however, it does not quite end there. At the end of the play, when the couples, now properly distributed and legitimately married, have gone to bed, the fairies come in from the wood and take possession of the palace. Though their purpose, we are to understand, Children’s Shakespeare Festival at the Folger is benevolent, they also bring with them the uncanny resonances of the None of the distinct voices in the play— dreamworld that seemed to have been romantic, lyrical, or urgent—seems to left behind in the wood. exhaust the character of love; none of them can be identified with “true” love as opposed to false. Nor does any of them summarize the nature of love; and when Theseus tries to do so, what he says seems quite inadequate. “I never may believe,” he insists, “These antique fables, nor these fairy toys” (5.1.2-3). In talking about love, as perhaps in love itself, there is commonly a sense of a quality that cannot be made present, cannot be presented, or represented. In the most exhaustive analysis, the most effusive declaration, or the most lyrical poem, something slips away, and it is that elusiveness that sustains desire itself, as well as the desire to talk about it. And this, perhaps, is a clue to the nature of the pleasure A Midsummer Night’s Charles Kean’s book of costume designs for plays, Dream offers its audience. It constructs 19th or 20th century. Folger Shakespeare Library.
M. J. Tydlacka, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, watercolor, 2005. Folger Shakespeare Library.
In this way A Midsummer Night’s Dream offers to leave its audience in a state of mind that bears some resemblance to Bottom’s when he wakes up from his dream: exalted, perhaps, but a little less assured, less confident, and altogether less knowing than before. Excerpted from the Folger Shakespeare Library Edition (New York: Washington Square Press, 1993). Available in print, e-book, audio recording, iPad app, and as a free, mobile-friendly version at www.folgerdigitaltexts.org.
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, London, 1600. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Nic Bottom & the Queen of the Fairies, hand-colored frontispiece to Charles Lamb’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, London, 1811. Folger Shakespeare Library.
CREATIVE TEAM Aaron Posner
Director Folger Theatre: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Romeo and Juliet, The Conference of the Birds, The Taming of the Shrew (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Resident Production), Cyrano (Co-Adaptor; Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Director), The Comedy of Errors, Orestes: A Tragic Romp, Arcadia, Macbeth (co-director and co-conceiver), The Tempest (2007), Measure for Measure (Helen Hayes Awards, Outstanding Director and Outstanding Resident Play), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Director), Melissa Arctic (The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play), Twelfth Night, Othello, As You Like It (2001). Regional: Arden Theatre Company (Co-Founder, Artistic Director, and Resident Director, 1988-2006): more than 35 productions. Productions as a director and/or playwright at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Theater J/Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, The Alliance Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Delaware Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, and others. Awards: Barrymore Awards for Best New Play (The Chosen) and Outstanding Direction (A Midsummer Night’s Dream); Eisenhower Fellowship. Posner is the author of the plays Stupid F**king Bird, My Name Is Asher Lev, The Chosen, Sometimes a Great Notion, Mark Twain’s A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage, and others.
Erika Chong Shuch
Choreographer Folger Theatre: The Conference of the Birds (Helen Hayes Award nomination, Outstanding Choreography); California Shakespeare Theater: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew; American Conservatory Theater: The Unfortunates (upcoming). Directing credits include: The Kennedy Center: The Gift of Nothing (Associate Director). Shotgun Players:
Eurydice, God’s Ear; Magic Theatre: Lily’s Revenge. Artistic Director of Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project, premiered 10 original works since 2002. Resident Artist: Berkeley Rep Ground Floor Program; Guest Artist: ACT new works program. Commissioned works for: Daejeon Metropolitan Dance (Daejeon, South Korea); Chang Mu Dance (Seoul, South Korea). Guest Choreographer: Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange, Corcoran Gallery of Art. Additional Residency: de Young Museum, Headlands Center, Djerassi, UC Berkeley, Mullae Art Space (Seoul, South Korea). Awards: Creative Capitol 2016, Creative Work Fund Award 2015, Rainin Foundation Support 2015, USA Artist nominee 2014, Falstaff Award 2013, Alpert Award nominee 2011, Theatre Communications Group Global Connections Award 2011, Gerbode Foundation Emerging Choreographer Award 2007.
Paige Hathaway
Scenic Design Folger Theatre: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Theater Alliance: Night Falls on the Blue Planet. Studio Theater: Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love (2nd Stage). Olney Theater Center: Godspell. University of Maryland: Die Fledermaus (Maryland Opera Studio), The Matchmaker, In Time of Roses. Associate Set Designer: Signature Theatre: Sex with Strangers. Assistant Set Designer: ART and The Smith Center for the Performing Arts: The Tempest; Olney Theatre Center: I and You; Milwaukee Repertory Theater: End of the Rainbow, The Diary of Anne Frank; Arden Theatre Company: A Raisin in the Sun, Cyrano; The Kennedy Center: The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg; The Muny: Oklahoma!, Into the Woods, Billy Elliot, Seussical the Musical, Porgy and Bess, Mary Poppins, South Pacific. paigehathawaydesign.com
Devon Painter
Costume Design Folger Theatre: Cyrano, Macbeth, Measure for Measure. Regional: Guthrie Theater: Stage Kiss, Shadowlands, Private Lives, Death of a Salesman, All My Sons; Additional
CONNECT WITH US
CREATIVE TEAM productions at theaters include: Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Geva Theatre Center; The Denver Center for the Performing Arts; Actors Theatre of Louisville; Delaware Theatre Company; Milwaukee Repertory Theater; Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Westport Country Playhouse; Two River Theater Company; The Contemporary American Theater Festival; Shakespeare Santa Cruz; Shakespeare Festival St. Louis; Utah Shakespeare Festival; American Players Theatre. Off-Broadway: Ensemble Studio Theatre; The Culture Project; The Juilliard School; The Pearl Theatre Company. Painter’s designs were selected for the exhibit Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance.
Jesse Belsky
Lighting Design Studio Theatre: ANIMAL; Signature Theatre: The Mystery of Love and Sex; Everyman Theatre: Deathtrap, Blithe Spirit,
Outside Mullingar. Regional: Yale Repertory Theatre: Lydia, Rough Crossing; Triad Stage: The 39 Steps, Pump Boys & Dinettes, Shipwrecked, Kingdom of Earth; Playmakers Repertory Company: The Year of Magical Thinking; Mabou Mines: Glass Guignol. OffBroadway: 59E59: The Body Politic; Midtown Theater: My Trip Down the Pink Carpet; La Mama Annex: Lysistrata, The Women of Troy. Touring: Bang On A Can/Asphalt Orchestra: Unpack the Elephant. International: Lee Breuer’s Antigone (Athens, Greece); Anonymous Ensemble: THEBEST (Brisbane, Australia); Theater Roes: The Return (Athens, Greece). Dance: Japhy/ Wideman Dance: CANE. jessebelsky.com
Sarah Pickett
Sound Design and Additional Music Oregon Shakespeare Festival: The Count of Monte Cristo, Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing;
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CREATIVE TEAM Quantum Theatre: All the Names; Baltimore Center Stage: It’s a Wonderful Life; American Players Theatre: Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Antony and Cleopatra, Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s Will, Of Mice and Men, The Cure at Troy, All’s Well That Ends Well; Asolo Repertory Theatre: Venus in Fur, The Winter’s Tale; Yale Repertory Theatre: Hamlet, A Delicate Balance, Death of a Salesman; Victory Gardens Theater: We are Proud to Present…; Portland Center Stage: Red; Drury Lane Theatre: Gypsy; Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Workshop of The Edward P. Jones Project; Dallas Theater Center: To Kill a Mockingbird; About Face Theatre: The Homosexuals; Long Wharf Theatre: The Italian American Reconciliation; Theatre for a New Audience: Macbeth, Othello; PlayMakers Repertory Company: The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby; Stonington Opera House: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Syracuse Stage: The Underpants, The Santaland Diaries; Women’s Project Theater: Aliens with Extraordinary Skills; Hangar Theatre: No Child…, Stones in His Pockets, Bach at Leipzig. sarahpickett.com
Andre Pluess
Original Music Folger Theatre: As You Like It. Regional: Steppenwolf: Endgame, Kafka on the Shore, Sex with Strangers; Goodman Theater, Guthrie Theater, and The Old Globe Theatre: White Snake; Lookingglass Theater: Treasure Island, The Eastland; Court Theatre: Agamemnon; Cal Shakes: The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night; Oregon Shakespeare Festival: White Snake, Fingersmith, Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Broadway: Metamorphoses, I Am My Own Wife, 33 Variations. Off-Broadway: Lincoln Center: The Clean House; Playwrights Horizons: Milk Like Sugar. Film: The Business of Being Born.
Michele Osherow
Resident Dramaturg Folger Theatre: texts&beheadings/ElizabethR, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet (dramaturg and actor), Twelfth Night, Henry V, The Conference of the Birds, The Taming of the Shrew, The Gaming Table, Othello (2011,
2001), Cyrano, The Comedy of Errors, Henry VIII, Hamlet, Orestes: A Tragic Romp, Much Ado About Nothing, Arcadia, The Winter’s Tale, 1 Henry IV, Macbeth, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2006), Othello (2001), Measure for Measure (dramaturg and actor). Regional: Quotidian Theatre Company: Afterplay (actor), A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (actor), Captain Drew on Leave, Dublin Carol, The Carpetbagger’s Children, The Mollusc, Tomorrow (actor), The Seagull (actor), Valentine’s Day (actor), While We Have the Light (actor), Uncle Vanya (actor), A Little Trick (actor); Jewish Repertory Theatre: The Dybbuk (actor); Arden Theatre Company: The Chosen, As You Like It (actor), Love’s Labors [sic] (actor). Currently Associate Professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Daryl Eisenberg, CSA
Daryl Eisenberg Casting New York Casting Folger Theatre: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Henry V. West End and Off-Broadway: New World Stages: White’s Lies; Actor’s Playhouse: My Big Gay Italian Wedding, Miss Abigail’s Guide to Dating, Mating, and Marriage, Gay Bride of Frankenstein, My First Time, The Awesome 80s Prom, F#%king Up Everything, Baby Case, Stand Tall, VOTE! A New Musical, Street Lights, Altar Boyz, Garage Band, Norwegian Cruise Line, Davenport Reading Series, Gotham Stage Company. Film: Hypebeasts, Sleep, Following Chase, The Last/First Kiss, Coffee & Pie. Television: Casting Associate on Gossip Girl and Cashmere Mafia. Web: Pipture: Characters, Guard of Dagmar, TheBatterysDown.com, JoeyAndDavid.com, Simon & Schuster Young Adult book trailers, Standard Deviants. decasting.com
Marne Anderson
Production Stage Manager Folger Theatre: Pericles, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Arena Stage: Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End, King Hedley II, Five Guys Named Moe, Mother Courage and Her Children, Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life,
CREATIVE TEAM The Mountaintop, Metamorphoses, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Oklahoma!, A Time to Kill, The Arabian Nights, Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies, The Fantasticks, The Quality of Life; Kennedy Center: Cricket in Times Square, The Wings of Ikarus Jackson; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Much Ado About Nothing; Signature Theatre: SPIN; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: You For Me For You, Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play. Regional: Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival: Will Roger’s Follies, Damn Yankees. National tours: Young Frankenstein.
Elisabeth Ribar
Assistant Stage Manager Folger Theatre: Pericles, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar. Imagination Stage: When She Had Wings. Olney Theatre Center: The Tempest, Bedlam’s Hamlet and Saint Joan, A Christmas Carol, Sleuth, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Sound of Music; Adventure Theatre MTC: The Jungle Book; Signature Theatre: Beaches; Ford’s Theatre: A Christmas Carol; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Wallenstein, Coriolanus. Regional: Heritage Theatre Festival: Next to Normal, Annie Get Your Gun, Little Shop of Horrors, Oliver!.
Janet Alexander Griffin
Artistic Producer Director of Public Programs for the Folger Shakespeare Library since 1982. She has produced 81 plays, including 28 Shakespeare plays, for which Folger Theatre has been recognized with 125 nominations and 21 awards for excellence in acting, direction, design, and production from Washington’s
Helen Hayes Awards. Among new work she has developed at Folger was Lynn Redgrave’s solo show, Shakespeare for My Father, which in final development toured internationally and earned Redgrave a Tony Award. Responsible for the Folger Shakespeare Library’s season of performing arts and cultural events, she has overseen the growth of the Folger Consort early music series and developed contemporary literature and lectures at Folger, including the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series and Folger’s partnership with the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, bringing the country’s most renowned writers to the Washington, DC area. She is the 2015 recipient of the Burbage Award from the American Shakespeare Center.
Beth Emelson
Assistant Artistic Producer Folger Theatre: since 2004. Off-Broadway: Producing Director, Atlantic Theater Company (OBIE and Drama Desk Award winner); Producing Director, Classic Stage Company (Lortel and OBIE Award winner). Broadway and Off-Broadway: Associate Executive Producer, Lincoln Center Theater (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics’ Circle, Lortel and OBIE Award winner); General Management Associate: Brooklyn Academy of Music and The Public Theater; Producing Director and Member, Naked Angels. She has also produced several short films, a comedy series for HBO and she produces for both the Nantucket and Tribeca Film Festivals as well as teaching producing for New York University.
Join us in 2016 for The Wonder of Will, celebrating Shakespeare and his extraordinary legacy through special events, exhibitions, performances, and more—online, at the Folger, and across the United States!
Once again,
Shakespeare.
T
his year the Folger Shakespeare Library is leading a nationwide celebration— The Wonder of Will—to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, or better, the fifth century of his afterlife.
Why do we keep returning to this writer? Reason one is that he belongs to no one, and so potentially everyone. From Bollywood films to productions in Kabul, Shakespeare keeps speaking new languages.
Second, the words made famous by this writer still sparkle, inviting us to think again and again about what they might mean. “We are such stuff as dreams are made on,” says Prospero at the end of The Tempest. And like an opal, Shakespearean phrases such as this one continue to turn in our minds, reflecting the light of our own world in a depth that remains curiously his. Finally, we still pay attention to Shakespeare because, no matter how networked our world becomes, he remains one of the ultimate connectors. In a sense, Shakespeare wrote the preamble to modern life. His stories reflect the tensions of the period in which he lived—a period that saw the rise of global trade, modern science, free speech, religious tolerance, even the media revolution that was the printed book. Shakespeare found the human heart in all of this change. Long before anyone knew what to call it, this clever man from Warwickshire was writing about the modern world. That world is still our world, and I invite you to encounter it anew this year as we celebrate The Wonder of Will around the country, online, and here in Washington, DC. 400 years in, we still need Shakespeare’s powerful, adaptable, indispensable stories to teach us who we are.
W
At the Folger
e’re celebrating The Wonder of Will in Washington, DC, with once-in-a-lifetime Shakespeare experiences: history-making exhibitions in the Great Hall; a season of wonder on stage with Folger Theatre premieres and Folger Consort concerts; illuminating lectures and readings; special events; and fun-filled family programs. Join us!
Family Programs
Exhibitions Rare letters, books, art, manuscripts, and costumes in four treasure-filled exhibitions show us the man behind the myth in Shakespeare, Life of an Icon, how Americans have made the Bard our own in America’s Shakespeare, the rise of the rock star writer in Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity, and the return home of our crown jewel with First Folio! Shakespeare’s American Tour.
Performances The return of the Reduced Shakespeare Company to Folger Theatre, followed by The Merchant of Venice reimagined in a new play by Aaron Posner, and Folger Consort performing the music of the Renaissance and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen are on-stage highlights.
Readings & Talks The New Sonneteers offers a contemporary look at an old form in an April poetry reading, while lectures by four leading scholars—sponsored by the Folger Institute’s Center for Shakespeare Studies—capture performance, literary celebrity, and more. Free Folger Friday talks, too!
Family Programs Shakespeare is for everyone! Children and adults experience Shakespeare’s language together through play. Free, the first Saturday of each month.
wonderofwill.folger.edu
Readings & Talks
Performances
Exhibitions
On the Road Los Angeles Public Library with the Library Foundation of Los Angeles
America’s Shakespeare Nov 17, 2016–Feb 26, 2017 Our spring exhibition in DC goes West come fall. Rare letters, costumes, and books reveal how Americans have made Shakespeare our own. From politics and war to stage, screen, and radio, his words and ideas weave through our national story.
THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS! Programs of The Wonder of Will: 400 Years of Shakespeare are made possible in part by major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor, and by the generous support of the British Council, Vinton and Sigrid Cerf, Neal and Florence Cohen, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Google.org, May Liang, Roger and Robin Millay, National Endowment for the Arts, Stuart and Mimi Rose, Share Fund, and the Winton and Carolyn Blount Exhibition Fund of the Folger Shakespeare Library. We are also grateful to The Wonder of Will Century Club, Honorary Committee, and 2016 Folger Gala sponsors. To learn how you can support The Wonder of Will, call 202.675.0377.
Theater Partnership Program To build greater connections with Shakespeare, the Folger is partnering with theaters around the country to share content and experiences to deepen audience engagement.
Gravedigger’s Tale A special touring production accompanying the First Folio! exhibition to select sites.
How do we know Shakespeare’s plays? For many of them, the answer is one book: the 1623 First Folio. Without it, 18 plays, including Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and The Tempest, could have been lost. In 2016, First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare brings the First Folio to 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico.
Folger Theatre’s interactive retelling of Hamlet features Helen Hayes Award-winning actor Louis Butelli as the Gravedigger. Arriving with a trunk and book, he answers “questions” from the audience using lines from Hamlet.
Online Shakespeare Documented shakespearedocumented.org The largest and most authoritative resource for learning about primary sources that document the life and career of William Shakespeare, Shakespeare Documented shares images, descriptions, and transcriptions of roughly 400 manuscripts and printed works from 30 leading institutions in the US and UK.
Share Your Shakespeare Story folger.edu/myshx400 The Folger is inviting the world to record their personal experiences and connections with Shakespeare and his work, and then to share these videos on social media using the hashtag #MySHX400. This digital collage of stories celebrates Shakespeare’s legacy today.
Shakespeare in American Life folger.edu/sial Our three-part public radio documentary explores the English language’s most important playwright and his influence on American performance, politics, and popular culture. Each hour-long episode, narrated by Sam Waterston, deepens our understanding of Shakespeare and the American identity.
Shakespeare is for Everyone!
First Folio Tour Digital Guide firstfolio.folger.edu Our mobile site invites First Folio tourgoers to vote for their favorite Shakespeare play, explore multiple takes on “to be or not to be,” leaf through a digital First Folio, and enjoy galleries featuring Shakespeare in performance and popular culture.
Teaching Shakespeare folger.edu/education Four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare lives on in classrooms everywhere. In 2016, Folger Education is sharing new resources and special programs:
At the Folger Teaching Shakespeare 2016 is bringing 25 teachers from across the country to Washington, DC for a four-week deep dive into America’s Shakespeare through the study of Othello, The Tempest, and The Merchant of Venice.
On the Road
Shakespeare’s World shakespearesworld.org Shakespeare’s World, a partnership between the Folger, Zooniverse, and the Oxford English Dictionary, is an online platform for transcribing manuscripts by Shakespeare’s contemporaries. The corpus built will show us more about the English language and the world in which Shakespeare lived.
In partnership with First Folio tour stops, the English Speaking Union, and school districts, Folger Education is leading professional learning days for K–12 teachers.
Online Folger Education’s live-streamed Master Classes on teaching Hamlet, Othello, and Julius Caesar bring content expertise and classroom strategies to teachers everywhere.
Celebrate The Wonder of Will in 2016 wonderofwill.folger.edu
PRODUCTION CREDITS Assistant Technical Director Humanities Programs Assistant Casting Assistant Magic Consultant Assistant Director Assistant Director Production Assistant Dance Captain Props Master Scenic Construction Scenic Painters Assistant Costume Designer Wardrobe Head Costume Construction Crafts Master Electrician Light Board Operator Sound Engineer Advertising Agency Production Photography Promotional Photography Promotional Video Archival Video Open Captioning
Rebekah Sheffer Katharine Pitt Teresa Wood Nate Dendy Cassie Ash Jenna Duncan Elizabeth Brodie Monique Robinson Tony Koehler Bella Faccia, Inc. Brian Gillick, Tyler Herald, Richard Ouellette Kate Fulop Cidney Forkpah Mariah Hale, Ansaldo Costumes, Adalia Tonneyck and Denise Wagner John Brandon Baird James Neylon Amanda Kircher Brandon Roe WiT Media Teresa Wood James Kegley Heather Daniels, Lee Fanning, Mark Fastoso, APTV WAPAVA C2
Acknowledgements: Ally Bean, Xavier Hodge and the Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, World Travel Service. Songs sampled in the production include: Someone Like You, Adele; No One is Alone, Stephen Sondheim; Blue Moon, The Marcels.
Folger Theatre is a member of Blue Star Theatres, CultureCapital, Cultural Tourism DC, League of Washington Theatres, Shakespeare Theatre Association, and Theatre Communications Group, Inc.
FOLGER THEATRE SPONSORS
SUPPORTERS Additional support for Folger Theatre comes from
Joan and Peter Andrews Mildred Grinnell Clarke Public Programs Endowment Wyatt R. and Susan N. Haskell Public Programs Endowment Fund John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Public Programs Endowment Fund Dimick Foundation MARPAT Foundation National Endowment for the Arts Shakespeare in American Communities Shubert Foundation Share Fund Theatre Programs Endowment With special thanks to the family and friends of Lily St. John McKee (1987-2015), recognizing the creation of the Lily St. John McKee Memorial Fund.
Corporate, Foundation, and Government Support
Folger Shakespeare Library gratefully acknowledges the kind support of the following institutional donors. The list below includes gifts of $1,000 or more received between December 1, 2014 and November 30, 2015..
Anonymous B.H. Breslauer Foundation The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Capitol Hill Community Foundation Anthony & Anna L. Carozza Foundation Central Children’s Charities, Inc. Clark-Winchcole Foundation Council on Library & Information Resources Marshall B. Coyne Foundation D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts Dimick Foundation © Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation The Max & Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc. The Lee & Juliet Folger Fund John Edward Fowler Memorial Foundation
The Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation Heinz Family Foundation Corina Higginson Trust Holland & Knight LLP Humanities Council of Washington, D.C. Mark & Carol Hyman Fund Lannan Foundation MARPAT Foundation © The Nancy Peery Marriott Foundation Mars Foundation The Mosaic Foundation (of R. & P. Heydon) National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts National Endowment for the Arts National Endowment for the Humanities National Recreation Foundation Overseas Hardwoods Company Pine Tree Foundation of New York The C.B. Ramsay Foundation The Nora Roberts Foundation Shakespeare in American Communities Share Fund © The Shubert Foundation © United Technologies Weissberg Foundation ©
Individual Donors
Folger Shakespeare Library gratefully acknowledges the kind support of the following individuals. The list below includes gifts and pledges of $250 or more received between December 1, 2014 and November 30, 2015.
$25,000+ Anonymous Vinton & Sigrid Cerf © Susan Sachs Goldman © J. May Liang & James Lintott The McKee family in loving memory of Lily St. John McKee Roger & Robin Millay © William & Louisa Newlin © Herman J. Obermayer Andrew Oliver & Melanie Du Bois Gail Kern Paster © Mark Pigott KBE & Cindy Pigott Stuart & Mimi Rose
$15,000 -$24,999 The Lord Browne of Madingley Louis & Bonnie Cohen © Helen & David Kenney & Family ©
The Honorable John D. Macomber John & Connie McGuire © Ann K. Morales © Mr. & Mrs. B. Francis Saul, II Neal T. Turtell ©
$10,000-$14,999 Anonymous Twiss & Patrick Butler Heather & Dick Cass Nicky Cymrot © Maygene & Steve Daniels © Mr. & Mrs. Peter Edwards David & Margaret Gardner © Mr. & Mrs. Amos B. Hostetter, Jr. Deneen Howell & Donald Vieira Maxine Isaacs Edward & Patricia Leahy The Honorable Eugene A. Ludwig & Dr. Carol Ludwig Jacqueline B. Mars Darcy & Andy Nussbaum Mr. & Mrs. Loren Rothschild Joanne & Paul Ruxin Louis B. Thalheimer & Juliet A. Eurich $5,000-$9,999 Judy Areen & Richard Cooper © Neal & Florence Cohen Drs. Julian & Elizabeth Eisenstein Ms. Denise Gwyn Ferguson © Mr. & Mrs. Michael P. Galvin Stephen H. Grant Wyatt R. & Susan N. Haskell Andrea Kasarsky © Karl K. & Carrol Benner Kindel © Dr. Anne M. King Michael Klein & Joan Fabry Ken Ludwig & Adrienne George Mr. and Mrs. John B. Magee J.C. & Mary McElveen Mrs. William F. Nelson Chip Newton & Liz Smith Mr. Dusty Philip Mr. Ben Reiter & Mrs. Alice Goldman Reiter Mr. & Mrs. H. Axel Schupf Mr. & Mrs. Theodore Sedgwick Gabriela & Douglas Smith The Steinglass Family © Tessa van der Willigen & Jonathan Walters © Scott & Liz Vance © Tara Ghoshal Wallace © Drs. Michael L. Witmore & Kellie Robertson Ellen & Bernard Young
© Folger Theatre donor
SUPPORTERS $2,500-$4,999 Anonymous (2) Gary & Mary Ellen Abrecht Keith & Celia Arnaud © Jarrett & Nora Arp D. James Baker & Emily Lind Baker Roger & Julie Baskes Hon. & Mrs. Samuel R. Berger Michael S. Berman & Deborah Cowan Bob Bradway Bill & Evelyn Braithwaite © Ms. Marilyn Brockway Howard M. Brown © Mr. Mark D. Colley & Ms. Deborah A. Harsch © Brian & Karen Conway Jeffrey P. Cunard © Porter & Lisa Dawson Philip J. Deutch & Marne L. Levine Barbra Eaton & Ed Salners © Marjorie & Anthony Elson Nancy M. Folger & Sidney Werkman Jeff Franzen Wendy Frieman & David Johnson © Ruth Hansen & Lawrence Plotkin Catherine Held Ms. Deidre Holmes DuBois & Mr. Christopher E. DuBois William L. Hopkins © Rick Kasten © Professor John N. & Pauline King Mr. Arthur Koenig Mr. Thomas G. MacCracken Julianna Mahley © Drs. Daniel & Susan Mareck © Mark McConnell & Leslie Delagran Mr. & Mrs. Leander McCormick-Goodhart Pam McFarland & Brian Hagenbuch © Peter & Mary Jay Michel © Martin & Elaine Miller Jane & Paul Molloy Hazel C. Moore © Cullen & Anna Marie Murphy Carl & Undine Nash © Melanie & Larry Nussdorf Carolyn & Mark Olshaker © Gail Orgelfinger & Charles C. Hanna Craig Pascal & Victor Shargai © Mr. & Mrs. Trip Reid Dr. Lois Green Schwoerer Robert J. & Tina M. Tallaksen Ayanna & Derek Thompson © Folger Theatre donor
Mr. James Timberlake & Ms. Marquerite Rodger Toby & Stacie Webb Professor R L Widmann Nyla & Gerry Witmore
$1,000-$2,499 Anonymous (5) John & Nancy Abeles Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Allbritton Mr. Peter England Blau Mr. & Mrs. Joseph S. Bracewell Ms. Gigi Bradford & Mr. Jim Stanford Mr. & Mrs. David G. Bradley Mr. & Mrs. Charles P. Brown Mr. & Mrs. I. Townsend Burden, III © Mr. & Mrs. Peter J. Callahan William J. Camarinos Professor Carmen A. Casís Mr. Richard H. Cleva Dr. Anne Coldiron Mr. & Mrs. John J. Collins © Mr. Edwin P. Conquest, Jr. Mr. Eric Cooper Ronald M. Costell, M.D., & Marsha E. Swiss © Ms. D. Elizabeth Crompton Ms. Harriet H. Davis Mr. Steven des Jardins © Mr. John F. Downey Ms. Kristin L. Dukay Rose & John Eberhardt Dr. William E. Engel Mr. & Mrs. Bill Foulkes Carla & George Frampton Mr. & Mrs. Kingdon Gould, Jr. Ms. Patricia J. Gray Ann Greer Dr. Martha Gross & Mr. Robert Tracy Dr. & Mrs. Werner L. Gundersheimer Dr. Elizabeth H. Hageman Mrs. O.B. Hardison, Jr. Martha Harris Florence & Peter D. Hart Mr. Joseph M. Hassett & Ms. Carol Melton John & Meg Hauge © Ms. Karen L. Hawkins Mr. & Mrs. Keith B. Hennessey Ms. Anita G. Herrick Eric H. Hertting Mr. Michael J. Hirrel Sherman & Maureen Katz Ms. Caroline Kenney Ms. Maria L. Kocylowsky
Mr. & Mrs. J. Ronald Langkamp Richard & Jane Levy Finlay & Wilda Lewis Mr. & Mrs. Robert Case Liotta David Lloyd, Realtor Mr. & Mrs. Jan Lodal Ms. Caroline Lopez Mr. & Ms. Michael & Nga Lopez Mr. & Mrs. Richard L. Lyon Patricia Magno Mr. & Mrs. Mark A. Mancini Mr. Winton E. Matthews, Jr. © Mr. & Mrs. Gregory McBride Mr. Christopher McKee Ms. Barbara M. Meade Mr. Hilary B. Miller & Dr. Katherine N. Bent Dr. Barbara A. Mowat Mary Muromcew Dr. Rebeccah Kinnamon Neff Mr. & Mrs. Robert Nordhaus Anne Parten & Philip Nelson Drs. Eldor & Judith Pederson Ms. Rebecca Penniman & Mr. Louis Wittenberg Dr. & Mrs. Joram Piatigorsky Earl & Carol Ravenal Ms. Lola Reinsch Mr. David Roberts & Dr. David Spencer Dr. Markley Roberts Howard & Melinda Rubin Lelia & Robert Russell John & Lynn Sachs Mr. & Mrs. K. Dudley Schadeberg Dr. Richard Schoch Christopher Schroeder & Alexandra Coburn Dr. Marianne Schuelein & Mr. Ralph M. Krause Dr. James Shapiro Ms. Joy Shashy Joan Shorey Norman & Ellen Sinel James Baker Sitrick Shirley & Albert H. Small Ms. Ann L. Starkey Ms. Joanne M. Sten Dr. Ann Swann © Mr. Leslie C. Taylor Mr. & Mrs. Tim Thornton © Mr. Nigel Twose & Ms. Priscilla Annamanthodo The Honorable Seth Waxman & Ms. Debra Goldberg Mrs. Eric Weinmann Gail Weinmann & Nathan Billig Mr. David Weisman Mr. Theron Westervelt
SUPPORTERS Mr. Donald E. White & Ms. Betty W. Good-White Philip & Tricia Winterer Beverly & Christopher With Mr. Douglas Wolfire Mr. & Mrs. Alan Wurtzel © Laura Yerkovich & John Winkler
$500-$999 Anonymous Dr. Robert S. Adelstein & Mrs. Miriam A. Adelstein © Dr. Peter J. Albert & Ms. Charlotte Mahoney Mrs. Jo Ellen Allen Mrs. Janet Baran & Mr. Mark LeVota Ms. Lisa U. Baskin Ms. Kyle Z. Bell & Mr. Alan G.R. Bell Mr. Brent James Bennett Mr. D. Jeffrey Benoliel & Mrs. Amy Branch Benoliel Drs. Robin & Clare Biswas Dr. Jean C. Bolan Mr. & Mrs. Richard Bott © Dr. Mary H. Branton Mrs. Adrianne Brooks Kathleen Burger & Glen Gerada Ms. Maria Alexia Burke John Byrd & Lina Watson © Mr. & Mrs. Lewis R. Cabe Ms. Diana Carl Mr. Wallace W. Chandler Mr. Todd Christofaro Mr. Charles W. Clark Leslie & Ray Clevenger Mr. Eli Cohen & Dr. Virginia Grace Cohen Mr. & Ms. Robert W. Cover Mr. & Mrs. Warren J. Cox S. Cudiner Mr. and Mrs. David J. Curtin Dr. & Mrs. William Davis Ms. Dorothea W. Dickerman & Mr. Richard Kevin Becker Ms. Sheri Dillon Clark & Emilie Downs Mr. Craig G. Dunkerley & Ms. Patricia Haigh Mr. Steven H. Dunn Louise H. Engle Mr. Douglas H. Erwin & Dr. Wendy Wiswall Ms. Marietta Ethier Mr. Gerald M. Feierstein Ms. Tracy Fisher © Mr. Gregory Flowers Mr. Robert Fontenrose ©
Mrs. Florence Bryan Fowlkes Mr. William V. Garetz Ms. Elizabeth H. Gemmill Jere Gibber & J.G. Harrington Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth W. Gideon Ms. Michelle Gluck & Dr. Walter Smith Mr. & Mrs. Daniel L. Goelzer Mr. Harry Gutman Dr. Nancy E. Gwinn & Dr. John Y. Cole Margaret & David Hannay John & Gail Harmon Dr. Peter I. Hartsock Dr. & Mrs. Robert M. Hazen © Mr. Robert Hebda © Terrance & Noel Hefty June & George Higgins © Mr. David H. Hofstad © Mr. & Mrs. Richard W. Jackson © Mr. Kenneth Karmiole Ms. Linda Katcher Mr. & Mrs. David Kelly Mrs. Margot Kelly David & Anne Kendall Wendy & Robert Kenney Mr. & Mrs. James King Mr. & Mrs. George Koukourakis Col. Denny Lane & Ms. Naoko Aoki Dr. Robert Lawshe Mr. Michael Lebovitz Dr. Carole Levin Ms. Nina Levine Lilly S. Lievsay Ms. Rachel M. Lilly Mr. Douglas T. Lwin Kevin & Sally Majkut Mr. James W. McBride Ms. Catherine McClave Dr. Heather A. McPherson Dr. Mary Patterson McPherson Beverly J. Melani & Bruce E. Walker © Ms. Kristie Miller & Mr. Thomas Hawkins Dr. & Mrs. Andy B. Molchon © Mr. & Mrs. Geoffrey C. Morell © Ms. Sheila A. Murphy Mr. Terence R. Murphy & Ms. Patricia A. Sherman Ted & Mary Eugenia Myer Ms. Essence Newhoff & Dr. Paul Gardullo Dr. & Mrs. Malcolm B. Niedner Ms. Alice L. Norris © Mr. & Mrs. Michael J. O’Connell Mr. Lee Oestreicher & Ms. Alejandra Miranda-Naon
Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Parr © Ms. Sheila J. Peters Mr. & Mrs. Gary M. Peterson Mr. & Mrs. Carl F. Pfeiffer Ms. Julie Phillips © Mr. & Mrs. Paul W. Phillips © Dr. & Mrs. Warren S. Poland Mrs. Jacqueline L. Quillen Mrs. Donald Rappaport Ms. Shana Regon & Mr. Timothy O’Toole Mr. & Mrs. Joseph H. Reynolds © Gerd & Duncan Ritchie © Mr. David Riz Mr. & Mrs. Albert L. Salter © Ms. Tatiana Serafin & Mr. Mick A. Kalishman Prof. Barbara A. Shailor Ph.D & Mr. Harry W. Blair II Dr. Sherry Wood Shuman & Mr. Philip B. Shuman Marilyn & Hugh South Mr. & Mrs. Thomas P. Stanley John & Alison Steadman Dr. C. Jan Swearingen Mr. John M. Taylor Mrs. Mary Augusta Thomas & Mr. George Thomas Mr. & Mrs. J. R. Tonkel Ms. Kathryn M. Truex Mr. & Mrs. James T. Turner Mr. Scott F. Turow Mr. & Mrs. Robert F. Van Voorhees Mr. Christopher White Webster Ms. Carolyn L. Wheeler © Gary & Josephine Williams Mr. & Mrs. Kevin B. Wilshere Mr. & Mrs. David A. Wilson © Ms. Katherine Wyatt & Mr. Al Vasquez Dr. Robert G. Young $250-$499 Anonymous Catherine N. Abrahams Ms. Monica Lynn Agree Mr. Thomas Ahern Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Charles T. Alexander Dr. Boris Allan & Ms. Kathleen L. Pomroy Mr. & Mrs. Douglas J. Alspach Ms. Jerrilyn V. Andrews & Mr. Donald E. Hesse © Ms. Pamela Auerbach Ms. Doris E. Austin Mr. & Mrs. Robert D. Bachmann Ms. Suzanne Bakshian & Mr. Vincent A. Chiappinelli Bess & Greg Ballentine © Folger Theatre donor
SUPPORTERS Mr. Seymour Barasch Mr. & Mrs. David B. Barefoot Ms. Christina Baumel Mr. & Mrs. David M. Beckmann Mr. & Mrs. Robert F. Benson © Mr. Kirke Bent Dr. James E. Bernhardt & Ms. Beth C. Bernhardt © Ms. Katherine A. Berry © Ms. Mary C. Blake © Mr. Michael C. Blaugrund Mr. James L. Blum © Mr. & Mrs. Richard J. Bochner © Professor Jackson Campbell Boswell & Mrs. Ann C. Boswell Ms. Gail S. Bower Ms. Gwen W. Brewer Capt. & Mrs. John Brownell Dr. James C. Bulman Colonel & Mrs. Lance J. Burton Dr. Rebecca Weld Bushnell & Mr. John David Toner Professor Charles Butterworth Ms. Karen Canova © Dr. & Mrs. Kent Cartwright Colonel & Mrs. Larry M. Cereghino Dr. Morris J. Chalick Mr. John Chester Linda & John Cogdill © Mr. Eli A. Cohen Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey Cohen Mr. & Mrs. William D. Coleman © Mr. & Mrs. Gary R. Correll Dr. John Cox & Dr. Lo-Ann Nguyen-Cox © James & Ann Coyle © Ms. Christina C. Daub Mr. Daniel De Simone & Ms. Angela Scott Dr. Janice F. Delaney Mr. & Mrs. Paul Denig Mr. & Mrs. Robert F. Dodds Ms. Colleen Dougherty Ms. Frances G. Durako Mr. & Mrs. Charles L. Eater Mr. David J. Edmondson Mr. & Mrs. Michael Eig © Mrs. John G. Esswein Ms. Susan Feinberg & Mr. John Popham Mr. & Mrs. Charles Fendig Melody & Albert Fetske Mr. & Mrs. Camden Fine Anne & Lucas Fischer Ms. Laurie Fletcher & Dr. Allan Fraser Mr. John Franzén © © Folger Theatre donor
Mr. Roland M. Frye, Jr. & Ms. Susan M. Pettey Mrs. Joanne Garris Ms. Nancy C. Garrison Mr. Mark Gilkey Mr. Lawrence J. Goffney, Jr. & Dr. Betty J. Forman © Mr. Gregg H.S. Golden Mr. James Robert Golden Mr. & Mrs. Michael Goldstein © Ms. Ann V. Gordon & Mr. Martin Singer Professors Suzanne & Philip Gossett Mr. & Mrs. Michael C. Grace Mr. John E. Graves, RIA & Ms. Hanh Phan Mrs. Claire Gibson Green Dr. Sayre N. Greenfield & Professor Linda V. Troost Neal & Janice Gregory Janet & Christopher Griffin Dr. & Mrs. Joseph R. Guerci Mr. & Mrs. C. David Gustafson Mr. & Mrs. Donald B. Haller © Col. Wesley P. Hallman & Dr. Silvana Rubino-Hallman Mr. & Mrs. Robert B. Hamilton Mr. George Hayes Dr. Susan R. Haynes & Dr. Carl C. Baker Ms. Barbara W. Hazelett Mrs. Anthony E. Hecht Dr. Eleanor E. Heginbotham Mr. Mark E. Herlihy & Ms. Ann M. Kappler Dr. Heather A. Hirschfeld & Prof. Anthony Welch Dr. Dee Ann Holisky © Dr. Mack P. Holt Dr. Henry Ridgely Horsey Ms. Elizabeth M. Janthey Mr. Herbert A. Johnson Mr. & Mrs. David H. Jones © Dr. Candace Katz & Mr. Hadrian R. Katz © Ms. Mary E. Kelly Christopher Kendall & Susan Schilperoort Mr. Joseph P. Kerr & Dr. Andrea M. Kerr Mr. Robert L. Kimmins © Ms. Lynne Myers Klimmer Mr. Michael Kolakowski Dr. Natasha Korda Kim & Elizabeth Kowalewski Mr. Richard Krasnow Mr. Barry Kropf Mr. Michael Laird
Mr. David W. Lankford David Larch & Deborah Roudebush Drs. Douglas & Janet Laube Ms. Susan Lee & Mr. Stephen Saltzberg Mr. & Mrs. Terry Lenzner Mr. & Mrs. Marc Levinson Mr. & Mrs. Roger N. Levy © Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence H. Liden Mr. Roy Lind Dr. Frances Litrenta © Mr. & Mrs. Peter Lockwood Mr. Joseph Loewenstein & Ms. C. Lynne Tatlock Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Lotterman © Mr. & Mrs. David J. Lundsten Dr. Kathleen Lynch & Mr. John C. Blaney Mr. & Mrs. Timothy Lynch Mr. William F. Maher, Jr. & Ms. Michelle M. Berberet Dr. Deborah L. Malkovich & Dr. William Freimuth Mr. & Mrs. Martin C. Mangold Ms. Allison Mankin & Dr. Jim Carton © Dr. Kevin B. Marvel © Mr. Patrick J. McGraw Mr. Steven J. Metalitz & Ms. Kit J. Gage Eric Minton & Sarah J. Smith Mr. Gerald J. Morris Mr. Jeffery Moser Ms. Melissa Moye & Mr. Joel Starr Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey Myers © Dr. & Mrs. Alan Nelson Ms. Martha Newman Mr. Mike Newton & Dr. Linda Werling Ms. Diane Ney Mr. John F. Niemeyer & Mrs. Mary Frances Niemeyer Ms. Laurie E. Osborne Mr. & Mrs. Ernest T. Oskin Mr. & Mrs. David M. Osnos Dr. Betty Ann Ottinger Mr. Henry Otto Ms. Patricia J. Overmeyer Dr. Jessie Ann Owens Mr. & Mrs. Larry D. Palmer Mr. & Mrs. Richard J. Park Dr. Michael P. Parker Mrs. Margaret Bouslough Parsons Ms. Barbara A. Patocka Mr. & Mrs. Kevin L. Pearson © Linda Levy Peck Ms. Ann Portocarrero Drs. Maria T. & Thomas A. Prendergast
SUPPORTERS Mr. Woodruff M. Price Ms. Gerit Ann Quealy Mr. & Mrs. Anthony Quinn Mr. Robert E. Ramsey & Ms. Elizabeth Brown © Mr. & Mrs. Erik M. Rasmussen Mr. Leon S. Reed & Ms. Lois S. Lembo Dr. Joshua S. Reid Ms. Jennifer Richards Mr. & Mrs. David Robinson Winnie & Alexander Robinson Ellen & Richard Rodin Ms. Emily Rose & Mr. James H. Marrow Miss Rhonda Rose Mr. Leslie Rosenbaum & Ms. Debra Derickson Mrs. Betty Sams Ms. Janet A. Sanderson Mr. Thomas Glenn Saunders © Mr. D. Stanton Sechler © Professor & Mrs. Mortimer Sellers Kay & George Simmons Mr. Joseph L. Smith & Ms. Cheryl S. Roesel Ms. Phyllis Smith Ms. Rose Solari & Mr. James Patterson Professor Richard E. Spear & Professor Athena Tacha Ms. Janet C. Stavropoulos Ms. Cathleen Ann Steg & Mr. Schuyler E. Schell © Ms. Elizabeth Stein Mr. Daniel Steiner Mr. Carl Wesley Stephens & Ms. Catherine L. Moore © Ms. Theresa A. Sullivan Ms. Margaret Sulvetta Dr. Deborah F. Tannen & Dr. Michael Macovski Mr. & Mrs. John V. Thomas Dr. Nancy Eve Thomas & Mr. Nick Olmos-Lau Mr. & Mrs. Grant P. Thompson © Mr. Anand Trivedi Mr. & Mrs. James C. Tsang Mrs. Ellen Tunstall © Mr. & Mrs. Stephen M. Vajs Dr. Arina van Breda Drs. Alden & Virginia Vaughan Dr. & Mrs. Peter J. Ventimiglia Mr. Eliot A. Wadsworth Dr. Barbara A. Wanchisen Ms. Patricia A. Webster Dr. & Mrs. John R. Wennersten Ms. Marice C. Werth & Mr. Peter Dodson
Ms. Dorothy B. Wexler Mr. James E. Whittaker Sandy & Jon Willen Mr. & Mrs. Roy L. Williams Anne & Fred Woodworth Dr. Duncan Wu Mr. & Mrs. Alan S. Wyatt Mr. Daniel Yabut Dr. Georgianna Ziegler
The First Folio Society
The list below includes all friends who have included the Folger Shakespeare Library in their estate plans through a will commitment, a life income gift, or a beneficiary designation in a life insurance policy or retirement plan.
Anonymous (2) Professor Judith H. Anderson Ms. Doris E. Austin Dr. Carol Barton Ms. Mary Cole The Honorable Esther Coopersmith Dr. Elizabeth L. Eisenstein Wendy Frieman & David Johnson Dr. Elise Goodman (bequest will be in memory of Elise Goodman & Rolf Soellner) Mrs. Karen Gundersheimer Dr. Werner L. Gundersheimer Dr. Elizabeth H. Hageman Dr. Jay L. Halio Catherine Held Eric H. Hertting Mr. Michael J. Hirrel Dr. Dee Ann Holisky Ms. Deidre Holmes DuBois & Mr. Christopher E. DuBois Ms. Elizabeth J. Hunt Maxine Isaacs Mrs. Robert J.T. Joy Dr. Elizabeth T. Kennan Karl K. & Carrol Benner Kindel Professor John N. King Pauline G. King Merwin Kliman Professor Barbara Kreps Dr. Carole Levin Lilly S. Lievsay Dr. Nancy Klein Maguire Pam McFarland & Brian Hagenbuch Mr. Gene B. Mercer Professor H. C. Erik Midelfort & Ms. Anne L. McKeithen Roger & Robin Millay Dr. Barbara A. Mowat Ms. Sheila A. Murphy © Folger Theatre donor
Herman J. Obermayer Gail Kern Paster Linda Levy Peck Dr. Sylvia Holton Peterson Professor Kristen Poole Professor Anne Lake Prescott Dr. Mark Rankin Dr. Markley Roberts Dr. Richard Schoch Mrs. S. Schoenbaum Lisa Schroeter Dr. Lois Green Schwoerer Mr. Theodore Sedgwick Albert H. Small Drs. Alden & Virginia Vaughan Barbara Wainscott Dr. Barbara A. Wanchisen Dr. Richard M. Waugaman, M.D. & Elisabeth P. Waugaman, Ph.D. Professor R L Widmann The Honorable Karen Hastie Williams Dr. Georgianna Ziegler Every effort has been made to ensure that this list of donors is correct. If your name is misspelled or omitted, please accept our sincere apologies and inform the Development Office at (202) 6750321.
TO RE R GISTER www.ShakespeareTheatre.org/Camp-Shakespeare 2 5477.5688 5688 ONLINE VISIT: or call the Education Hotlinee at 202.547
“Go to the show. And I mean, right away, this minute, get off the Internet and bustle over...you won’t be prepared for how beautiful it is.” —Time Out New York
Do you have what you need? Do you need what you have? Hilarious and heartbreaking, THE OBJECT LESSON unpacks our relationship to the stuff we cling to and the crap we leave behind. LIMITED RUN 05/18/16 - 06/05/16
T HE OBJECT L E S SO N CREATED AND PERFORMED BY GEOFF SOBELLE SCENIC INSTALLATION BY STEVEN DUFALA
DIRECTED BY DAVID NEUMANN F R I N G E F I R S T AWA R D W I N N E R
S TU DI OT HEATR E.OR G
BEGINS MAY 18
202.3 3 2 . 3 3 0 0
Adam Wesley Brown and Romell Witherspoon in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Kate Eastwood Norris in Mary Stuart; Michael Sharon and Deidra LaWan Starnes in Julius Caesar
Home to the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, the Folger Shakespeare Library is an internationally recognized research library offering advanced scholarly programs in the humanities; an innovator in the preservation of rare materials; a national leader in how Shakespeare is taught in grades K-12; and an award-winning producer of cultural and arts programs—theater, music, poetry, exhibits, lectures, and family programs, which connect broader audiences to our collections and support the living legacy of Shakespeare in contemporary life.
A gift to the American people from
industrialist Henry Clay Folger and his wife Emily Jordan Folger, this library opened in 1932.
Folger Theatre is the vibrant centerpiece of the Folger’s public programs. With a focus on Shakespeare, Folger Theatre produces plays reflecting the breadth of the library’s peerless collection. In this unique setting, with
Open: Mon.–Thurs., 10am–5pm; Fri., 10am–8pm; and Sun., 12pm–5pm Gift Shop: Tues.–Sat., 12pm–5pm
collaborations between artists and experts, Folger Theatre produces innovative stagings that have been commended as “breathtakingly original… strikingly contemporary” (The Washington Post).
Led by Artistic Producer Janet Alexander Griffin since 1991, Folger Theatre has received 135 nominations and 23 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in acting, direction, design, and production. During the recent seasons, Folger Theatre has received the Outstanding Resident Play Award for its productions of The Taming of the Shrew (2013), Hamlet (2011), and Measure for Measure (2007).
Other highlights from Folger Theatre’s producing history include these Helen Hayes Award recipients or nominees for outstanding production: Romeo and Juliet (2013), Orestes: A Tragic Romp (2010), Henry VIII (2010), Arcadia (2009), Macbeth (2008), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (2006), Melissa Arctic (2006), She Stoops to Conquer (2002), Shakespeare’s R & J (2001), Much Ado About Nothing (1998), and Romeo and Juliet (1997).
Building & Exhibition Tour: Mon.–Sat., 11am, 1pm & 3pm; and Sun. 12pm & 3pm
Reading Rooms Tour: Sat. at 12pm; limited to 15 participants. Reserve 35 in advance at tours@folger.edu
Photo by Jeff Malet
Photo by Teresa Wood
Photo by Jeff Malet
Photo by Julie Ainsworth
THE FOLGER
COMING THIS SPRING!
FOLGER
THEATRE 2015/16 SEASON
WORLD PREMIERE
INSPIRED BY SHAKESPEARE’S THE MERCHANT OF VENICE By AARON POSNER Directed by MICHAEL JOHN GARCÉS
MAY 31–JULY 3, 2016 EAST COAST PREMIERE
APRIL 21–MAY 8, 2016
22 PERFORMANCES ONLY!
folger.edu/theatre | (202) 544-7077